Great Train Robbery, The (ITV-1 2012, Charmain Biggs, Bruce Reynolds)

July 19, 2016

Following the end of the superb Mrs Biggs was an hour long doco detailing the events surrounding The Great Train Robbery.

“If it was going to be your brother on the train or your husband, or a friend of yours, and they were brutally attacked like that and terrified. Would you think these guys were cool, that they were heroes? I don’t think you would.” – Nick Russell-Pavier, author

The doco looks at the heist from the moment it was carried out at a desolate railway bridge, the way it captured the public imagination and elevated Ronnie Biggs and his partners in crime from small-time crooks to folklore figures.

Yet is the real truth dark and disturbing? Some glaring questions remain unanswered. Was it really a victimless crime? What is the significance of the men who got away?